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Basketball players possess a higher bone mineral density than matched non-athletes, swimming, soccer, and volleyball athletes: A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textDalbo, VJ ORCiD: 0000-0002-5944-7558; Scanlan, AT ORCiD: 0000-0002-0750-8697Summary: Basketball athletes possess a higher bone mineral density (BMD) than matched non-athletes and swimming, soccer, and volleyball athletes. Differences appear to be exacerbated with continued training and competition beyond adolescence. The greater BMD in basketball athletes compared to non-athletes, swimming, and soccer athletes is more pronounced in males than females. Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine differences in total and regional bone mineral density (BMD) between basketball athletes, non-athletes, and athletes competing in swimming, soccer, and volleyball, considering age and sex. Methods: PubMed, MEDLINE, ERIC, Google Scholar, and Science Direct were searched. Included studies consisted of basketball players and at least one group of non-athletes, swimming, soccer, or volleyball athletes. BMD data were meta-analyzed. Cohen’s d effect sizes [95% confidence intervals (CI)] were interpreted as: trivial ≤ 0.20, small = 0.20–0.59, moderate = 0.60–1.19, large = 1.20–1.99, and very large ≥ 2.00. Results: Basketball athletes exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) higher BMD compared to non-athletes (small-moderate effect in total-body: d = 1.06, CI 0.55, 1.56; spine: d = 0.67, CI 0.40, 0.93; lumbar spine: d = 0.96, CI 0.57, 1.35; upper limbs: d = 0.70, CI 0.29, 1.10; lower limbs: d = 1.14, CI 0.60, 1.68; pelvis: d = 1.16, CI 0.05, 2.26; trunk: d = 1.00, CI 0.65, 1.35; and femoral neck: d = 0.57, CI 0.16, 0.99), swimming athletes (moderate-very large effect in total-body: d = 1.33, CI 0.59, 2.08; spine: d = 1.04, CI 0.60, 1.48; upper limbs: d = 1.19, CI 0.16, 2.22; lower limbs: d = 2.76, CI 1.45, 4.06; pelvis d = 1.72, CI 0.63, 2.81; and trunk: d = 1.61, CI 1.19, 2.04), soccer athletes (small effect in total-body: d = 0.58, CI 0.18, 0.97), and volleyball athletes (small effect in total-body: d = 0.32, CI 0.00, 0.65; and pelvis: d = 0.48, CI 0.07, 0.88). Differences in total and regional BMD between groups increased with age and appeared greater in males than in females. Conclusion: Basketball athletes exhibit a greater BMD compared to non-athletes, as well as athletes involved in swimming, soccer, and volleyball. © 2020, International Osteoporosis Foundation and National Osteoporosis Foundation
Health sector spending and spending on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and development assistance for health: Progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3
No full textRawal, LB ORCiD: 0000-0003-1106-0108Summary Background Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 aims to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. While a substantial effort has been made to quantify progress towards SDG3, less research has focused on tracking spending towards this goal. We used spending estimates to measure progress in financing the priority areas of SDG3, examine the association between outcomes and financing, and identify where resource gains are most needed to achieve the SDG3 indicators for which data are available. Methods We estimated domestic health spending, disaggregated by source (government, out-of-pocket, and prepaid private) from 1995 to 2017 for 195 countries and territories. For disease-specific health spending, we estimated spending for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis for 135 low-income and middle-income countries, and malaria in 106 malaria-endemic countries, from 2000 to 2017. We also estimated development assistance for health (DAH) from 1990 to 2019, by source, disbursing development agency, recipient, and health focus area, including DAH for pandemic preparedness. Finally, we estimated future health spending for 195 countries and territories from 2018 until 2030. We report all spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2019 US7·9 trillion (95% uncertainty interval 7·8–8·0) in 2017 and is expected to increase to 20·2 billion (17·0–25·0) and on tuberculosis it was 5·1 billion (4·9–5·4). Development assistance for health was 374 million of DAH was provided for pandemic preparedness, less than 1% of DAH. Although spending has increased across HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria since 2015, spending has not increased in all countries, and outcomes in terms of prevalence, incidence, and per-capita spending have been mixed. The proportion of health spending from pooled sources is expected to increase from 81·6% (81·6–81·7) in 2015 to 83·1% (82·8–83·3) in 2030. Interpretation Health spending on SDG3 priority areas has increased, but not in all countries, and progress towards meeting the SDG3 targets has been mixed and has varied by country and by target. The evidence on the scale-up of spending and improvements in health outcomes suggest a nuanced relationship, such that increases in spending do not always results in improvements in outcomes. Although countries will probably need more resources to achieve SDG3, other constraints in the broader health system such as inefficient allocation of resources across interventions and populations, weak governance systems, human resource shortages, and drug shortages, will also need to be addressed. Funding The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Greetings from Nanning and Qinzhou!: Student reflections on an Australian university study tour to China as an experience of critical interculturality
No full textUniversity students’ international study tours vary widely in
intent, duration, effect and meaningfulness. The understandings enabled
by critical interculturality (Dervin, Critical Interculturality: Lectures and
Notes. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017;
Murphy-Lejeune, An experience of interculturality: Student travellers
abroad. In G. Alred, M. Byram, & M. Fleming (Eds.), Intercultural
experience and education (pp. 101–113). Sydney, NSW: Multilingual
Matters, 2003) can contribute significantly to gleaning further insights
into such study tours as potential sites of educational border crossings
that can facilitate genuine and enduring learning transformations. This
chapter deploys the research method of thematic analysis to explore the reflections by a group of Australian university students on their study
tour experience to China in November 2018. This analysis demonstrates
both the affordances and the limitations of university study tours abroad
in disrupting existing intercultural stereotypes, thereby creating possibilities
for the educational margins related to intercultural otherness to be
traversed by critically intercultural insights, and for intercultural voices to
be communicated and articulated
Maternal eroticism and female desire in Sue Miller's The good mother
No full textRooks, AL ORCiD: 0000-0002-8100-4497The Good Mother portrays a new kind of conflict for the growing
number of single mothers in the Western world in the late twentieth
century; tracking the fall from grace of newly divorced
"good mother", Anna Dunlap. The struggles and adversities that Anna
faces expose the persistent disavowal of mothers as sexual beings in the
late twentieth century, despite the alleged freedoms won for women in
the wake of the feminist and sexual liberation movements. In this essay,
I argue that The Good Mother has continued relevance for modern readers,
as it broadens the debates around the persistent ideology of asexual
motherhood in its presentation of mothering as an erotic experience,
one that shares a number of parallels with sexual eroticism and desire.
I reveal how Miller’s novel provides a provocative disruption of the
borders between mothering and sexuality in a way that brings to light
the issues that silently sustain many of the cultural anxieties surrounding
both of these aspects of female experience. I argue that in challenging
the cultural requirement of suppressing the component of eroticism
in the mothering role, Miller’s novel calls for an alternative, expanded
understanding of both sexuality and motherhood—one that considers
the difference in construction, representation, and experience that may
occur if sexuality, eroticism, and motherhood were considered through
a maternal lens
The relationship between alertness and spatial attention under simulated shiftwork
No full textGupta, CC ORCiD: 0000-0003-2436-3327Higher and lower levels of alertness typically lead to a leftward and rightward bias in attention, respectively. This relationship between alertness and spatial attention potentially has major implications for health and safety. The current study examined alertness and spatial attention under simulated shiftworking conditions. Nineteen healthy right-handed participants (M = 24.6 ± 5.3 years, 11 males) completed a seven-day laboratory based simulated shiftwork study. Measures of alertness (Stanford Sleepiness Scale and Psychomotor Vigilance Task) and spatial attention (Landmark Task and Detection Task) were assessed across the protocol. Detection Task performance revealed slower reaction times and higher omissions of peripheral (compared to central) stimuli, with lowered alertness; suggesting narrowed visuospatial attention and a slight left-sided neglect. There were no associations between alertness and spatial bias on the Landmark Task. Our findings provide tentative evidence for a slight neglect of the left side and a narrowing of attention with lowered alertness. The possibility that one's ability to sufficiently react to information in the periphery and the left-side may be compromised under conditions of lowered alertness highlights the need for future research to better understand the relationship between spatial attention and alertness under shiftworking conditions
Exploring the potential to improve the gut microbiome of broiler chickens using selenium nanoparticle supplements
No full textGangadoo, S ORCiD: 0000-0002-7803-8899The poultry industry has rapidly grown in the last few years with a focus in improving growth and productivity of broiler chickens, with performance assessed on measures such as feed conversion ratio, body weight gain and good immunity. The incorporation of antibiotics and feed additives in poultry diets, have been implemented for years to ensure the maintenance of poultry health with a focus on the control and reduction of zoonotic pathogens. In the last few years, however, key issues surrounding the antimicrobial resistance of antibiotics have urged for alternative supplementations. Nanoparticles (NPs) of silver and other metals have been heavily used in the poultry industry to improve the growth and performance of birds. Whilst successful, metal NPs exhibited higher toxicity at the higher surface to volume ratio, especially with the use of silver. This study proposes the use of NPs of essential metals and natural compounds to safely deliver nutrients, resulting in positive impacts on health and productivity with little to no toxic effects. Selenium is an essential mineral, required for the proper functioning of the immunity and is an important element in the first cell line of defence in the body. The work described in this thesis explores the ability of selenium NPs to improve the health and growth of broiler chickens by modulating their gut microbiome and metabolome, without the toxic effects observed with silver. Selenium NPs were synthesised using a simple chemical reduction method and a full characterisation was performed, assessing the physicochemical properties of the NP. Selenium NPs were then compared in an animal trial against two commonly used selenium additives in the poultry industry, sodium selenite (inorganic selenium) and selenomethionine (organic selenium). The performance of the birds was assessed based on body weight gain, the gut microbial composition and metabolite production. The toxicity of NPs was further investigated by quantifying selenium concentration in various tissues, along with a detailed histopathological assessment. Results show selenium NPs completely altered the gut microbial ecology at high concentration, with a strong correlation observed between Faecalibacterium prausnitzii abundance and increasing concentration of selenium NPs. Selenium NPs additionally increased villus height/crypt ratio associated with enhanced absorption in the small intestine and an overall increase of healthy colonic metabolites. Finally, an in vitro study demonstrated the ability of selenium NPs to reduce emerging pathogenic Enterococcus cecorum species. This thesis demonstrates the prospective ability of selenium NPs as alternatives to antibiotics and bulk supplementation, resulting in an improvement of health and performance of broiler chickens in the poultry industry
Simultaneous excitation systems for ultrasonic indoor positioning
No full textKhyam, MO ORCiD: 0000-0002-1988-2328Ultrasonic technology is a tool in the area of indoor positioning systems (IPSs) and has been extensively used in many applications. In ultrasonic IPSs (UIPSs), the use of a chirp signal (in which the frequency varies with time) is widespread due to its capability to obtain high-range resolution through its timefrequency characteristic. It also provides an opportunity to design effective waveform diversity which has always been the key
to mitigating multiple-access interference (MAI) in multi-user UIPSs. To explore this, we analyze the chirp signal from the signal design perspective, with the goal of developing a precise and efficient UIPS for multi-user environments. To achieve this, three waveform diversity design schemes are proposed in which all the benefits of the classical chirp, such as high-range resolution, are retained while all the transmitters can transmit chirp signals simultaneously. In each scheme, a linear chirp
is divided into two linear sub-chirps with diverse durations and/or bandwidths. This process is optimized by selecting the concatenated sub-chirps that generate a waveform which has a high-range resolution and relatively low interference in the same scheme. Initially, the effectiveness of the proposed schemes is evaluated for five simultaneous excitation signals using several metrics and experimental results are then presented for the ultrasonic indoor positioning
Emergency nurses’ activity levels across rotating shifts
No full textChappel, SE ORCiD: 0000-0001-6559-8929Background: Emergency nurses work consecutive, rotating shift patterns. However, how their occupational physical activity levels are associated between these shifts is unknown. This study aimed to examine the associations between emergency nurses’ time spent in different activity levels across one shift and the following day's shift. Methods: Fifty emergency nurses (45 female, five male) wore an ActiGraph accelerometer and completed work and sleep diaries across four weeks in 2018. A sub-sample (n = 42) also wore an activPAL inclinometer. Time spent sedentary, physically active, and in postural positions was determined. Multi-level analyses examined associations between one shift and the following day's shift. Results: Additional time spent sedentary and in light-intensity physical activity during the first shift was associated with more time spent being physically active in the following day's shift for all rotations except back-to-back night shifts. However, additional time spent engaged in moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity during the first shift was associated with less time spent physically active in the following day's shift for afternoon-morning and morning-afternoon rotations. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that shift sequences may impact emergency nurses’ physical activity across shifts. Future research should identify the strategies emergency nurses use to maintain activity levels between shifts. © 2020 College of Emergency Nursing Australasi
Managing operational risks through knowledge sharing in food supply chains
No full textAli, I ORCiD: 0000-0002-8912-5760Despite the unprecedented growth in research on knowledge management and supply chain risk management, most prior studies discuss these two topics in isolation. Also, there is a scarcity of empirical research on both topics. By pulling together these two seemingly interrelated concepts, this study devises an integrated model investigating the extent to which operational risks affect supply chain performance and moderating role of knowledge sharing. The data set is based on 225 responses collected from the firm managers of the Australian Agri-food supply chains (ASCs) and analysed through structural equation modelling. The findings uncover that operational risks significantly undermine ASCs performance. However, knowledge sharing inversely moderate the adverse effect of operational risks, such that the higher the knowledge sharing, the lower the adverse performance effect of operational risks and vice versa. The findings enhance managerial discernment about the criticality of frequently occurring operational risks and the role of knowledge sharing in risk mitigation. The novelty of the studies lies in the unified model that simultaneously delves into the performance effect operational risks and moderating influence of knowledge sharing on risk-performance nexus
Measuring resilience potentials: A pilot program using the resilience assessment grid
No full textKlockner, KD ORCiD: 0000-0003-1981-7515Researchers in the resilience engineering space have proposed the notion that organisations operating in complex socio-technical systems cannot ‘be’ resilient but can have the ‘potential for resilient performance’. This theoretical stance also suggests that organisations wanting to enhance their potential for resilience begin by measuring their operational safety performance against four key potentials, these being: the Potential to Anticipate; the Potential to Respond; the Potential to Learn; and the Potential to Monitor. Furthermore, to measure these four key resilience constructs, organisations have been recommended to use a Resilience Assessment Grid (RAG) developed as part of this theory. However, scarce research appears to have been conducted that bridges the theory and practice divide on just how organisations can pragmatically measure their current performance against these four resilience potentials using the RAG. Therefore, this research was interested in undertaking a pilot study using RAG theory in order to examine an organisation’s four resilience potentials, and was conducted within a large road transport organisation in Australia. Results indicated that measuring both the four individual potentials and a combination of the four potentials was possible using a RAG and proved effective in providing a snapshot of operational safety system resilience concepts. Recommendations on how to increase organisational resilience potentials were provided to ensure future safety endeavours would enhance the organisation’s potential to be resilience in the face of system variability and operational demands